US Invasion of Syria

Etienne J. Murphy, 22, was an infantryman assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia. Spc. Murphy, died in Al-Hasakah, Syria, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover related incident, according to the Pentagon.

Officials said he was on his first deployment.

He was born in May 1995 in Boston and enlisted in the U.S. Army from his hometown of Snellville, Georgia in June 2013.

The Army said Murphy’s awards and decorations include the Parachutist Badge, Army Achievement Medal with 3 OLC, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, NATO Medal, and Operation Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal with Campaign Star.

Murphy was posthumously awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

The United States has slightly more than 900 military personnel in Syria to advise and assist Kurdish and Arab rebel forces fighting ISIS.

Two other American service members have died in Syria since U.S. troops arrived there in early 2016.

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Perhaps Trump should learn from history of his own country . The document reveals that the White House and the CIA told the pilots to call themselves mercenaries if they were captured; the Pentagon took more than 15 years to recognize the airmen’s valor, in a medal ceremony their families were required to keep secret. Even more disturbing, this Bay of Pigs history includes CIA meeting notes—which Kennedy never saw—predicting failure unless the U.S. intervened directly.

Afterward, Kennedy accused himself of naïveté for trusting the military’s judgment that the Cuban operation was well thought-out and capable of success. “Those sons of bitches with all the fruit salad just sat there nodding, saying it would work,” Kennedy said of the chiefs. He repeatedly told his wife, “Oh my God, the bunch of advisers that we inherited!” Kennedy concluded that he was too little schooled in the Pentagon’s covert ways and that he had been overly deferential to the CIA and the military chiefs. He later told Schlesinger he had made the mistake of thinking that “the military and intelligence people have some secret skill not available to ordinary mortals.” His lesson: never rely on the experts. Or at least: be skeptical of the inside experts’ advice, and consult with outsiders who may hold a more detached view of the policy in question.